More Raw Siegelman Story

News is breaking all over today on the Don Siegelman saga, driven largely by investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna, both at her personal site (at-Largely) and at Raw Story.

First, Alexandrovna reports that CBS's corporate owners are under heavy pressure to quash the 60 Minutes story on the Siegelman case. In fact, Alabama Governor Bob Riley is bragging that his corporate cronies have pulled the rug over the story. But Alexandrovna says she knows about a particularly hot angle that CBS seems squeamish about. If the 60 Minutes folks do not run with the story, Alexandrovna says she will.

Also, Alexandrovna is hearing from multiple sources that Alabama whistleblowing attorney Dana Jill Simpson is being tailed under orders by Alice Martin, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. This is the same Alice Martin who has taken clear steps to cover up wrongdoing by Republican judges and political operatives in our own Legal Schnauzer case. We will be reporting in detail on Ms. Martin's two-faced tactics.

Alexandrovna leads a team of Raw Story reporters who have produced part III of their "The Permanent Republican Majority" series. Part III is titled "Running Elections from the White House" and paints an intricate story of a national power grab with roots in Alabama state judicial elections.

Raw Story draws connections between Rove's tactics in Alabama and the Swift Boat Veterans' ads attacking John Kerry in 2004. Included is a fascinating diagram that lays out the sleazy Web linking Alabama to Rove's national plan for GOP dominance.

Scott Horton, of Harper's, has an interesting take on the Raw Story report and notes how it dovetails nicely with his own investigative work that centers on Alabama.

There is one name that I hope the Raw Story folks will add to their diagram. That name is Dax Swatek. It was Dax Swatek's father, William E. Swatek, who filed a bogus lawsuit against me that led to the blog you are now reading. It also led to the commission of multiple federal crimes by Mr. Swatek and Republican judges in Alabama state courts, starting in district courts in the GOP stronghold of Shelby County and rising up to the Republican-dominated Supreme Court--the same court that recently robbed Alabamians of $3.6 billion in a lawsuit involving oil giant ExxonMobil.

William E. Swatek and his judicial cronies are getting away with their federal crimes. In fact, U.S. Attorney Alice Martin has taken clear steps to sweep the case out of public view. And why is that? Well, Dax Swatek was Governor Riley's campaign manager in 2004. And he was manager for Alice Martin's failed 2000 campaign for a seat on Alabama's Court of Criminal Appeals.

And who is Dax Swatek's mentor? None other than Bill Canary, who is at the very heart of the Raw Story diagram.

We will be showing in detail soon how we can add a Dax Swatek/Alice Martin wing to the diagram so expertly put together by the Raw Story investigators.

Finally, we have another piece of interesting Siegelman-related news. Journalist Mark Crispin Miller presents a fascinating 2004 interview in which Siegelman talks about the grudge Rove and other Republicans held against him.

How to draw all of this together? The theme is this: Our nation is in the midst of a Justice Department scandal that, if it ever truly is uncovered, might rank with the worst scandals in our nation's history. And where were the seeds planted? In Alabama's state courts? And where is our Legal Schnauzer story planted? In those very same Alabama state courts.

I think Miller, Horton, and Alexandrovna are telling us this: If you want to truly understand the corruption tearing through the Bush administration, you need to first understand the corruption that still can be found in Alabama's state courts. That's where Karl Rove's plan truly started. And that's where the Rove stench remains.